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I Was Alone with Beyonce

I had the recent pleasure of sitting in the eighth row for a Beyonce concert (just typing that titillates me). It was one of the rare times I forgot my iPhone in the car. For the first half of the show, I was pretty stressed out about the phone. At one point during the show, Beyonce flew overhead attached to a harness and landed on a second stage only a few feet from where I stood. This would’ve been a perfect moment to snap a shot and share it on Twitter and Facebook.

Or would it? I looked around. Every person within ten standing rows of the stage had their cameras or phones out (except a guy named Nigel who after Beyonce told him to “say your name,” in the microphone, burst into uncontrollable tears). They were all within a few feet of Beyonce, yet they were all watching the show through their tiny screens. Given the quality of phone camera and the skill level of most photographers, few of these shots would amount to much. And did the followers of any of these folks need to hear about the experience at that very moment? Is realtime reporting more important than an in the moment experience?

I was phoneless. I got to experience Beyonce in all her technicolor glory, life-size. Since everyone else was distracted by their screens, the moment was strangely private (aside from Nigel). Maybe I should forget my phone more often.

This post originally appeared in Tweetage Wasteland which has been merged with NextDraft.

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